Sarah Paulson remembers getting Studio 60 role, thanks to Matthew Perry

Late actor Matthew Perry played an important role in helping Sarah Paulson get a role in the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Sarah Paulson, while remembering Friends star Matthew Perry who died recently, said on The View, that it was him who helped her get a supporting role on Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived TV series.

Matthew Perry headlined the NBC show opposite Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet. All the actors were already a part of the ensemble when Sarah Paulson auditioned for the role of fictional actor Harriet Hayes. Sarah revealed that it was Matthew who guided her and that she had an advantage in her final audition by personally running lines with her.

Sarah remembered fondly, “I was at a particular place in my career where I needed that job very desperately. He, because of his friendship with Amanda Peet, who was my best friend at the time and was also on the show – they had done a movie together called The Whole Nine Yards– so he asked me to meet him in the parking lot for my final audition and I got in his car and he ran the whole scene with me multiple times so I could have a leg up on the other performer. And I did get the job.”

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Sarah Paulson continued, “So I sort of credit him with taking that extra time and he absolutely did not need to do that. He was just the kind of person that if you made him laugh or if you made him smile you felt like you had really arrived. I had the great pleasure of making him laugh a couple times and it made me feel really good. He was a wonderful guy.”

While Sarah got the job, the show didn’t run for too long. The Studio 60 only lasted one season on NBC and aired its series finale in June 2007.

Matthew Perry died suddenly on October 28 at 54 years old. He was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. His peers and industry friends shared tributes for Matthew while his colleagues and friends from the Friends show posted special messages for the actor, remembering their good times together.